SSC 2022 Previous Year GK Questions with Answers

The correct answer is D, Jhumpa Lahiri. Unaccustomed Earth, published in 2008, is her second collection of short stories and, like most of her work, deals with Bengali families settled in the United States. Her first collection, Interpreter of Maladies, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, and her novel The Namesake was widely read and filmed.

Option A, Shobha De, is known for Socialite Evenings and Starry Nights, novels of Mumbai society. Option B, Arundhati Roy, wrote The God of Small Things, which won the Booker Prize in 1997, and later The Ministry of Utmost Happiness. Option C, Anita Nair, wrote Ladies Coupe and Mistress. All four are Indian women writing in English, which is why the question is set this way; only Lahiri writes of the Bengali diaspora in America, and Unaccustomed Earth is hers.

The correct answer is D, disqualification. Badminton umpires use three cards, and the black one is the last of them: it removes the player or the pair from the match altogether, and the referee is informed. Option C, warning, describes the yellow card, which the umpire shows for a first offence such as delaying play or leaving the court without permission. Option B, fault, describes the red card, which punishes a repeated or a serious offence by awarding the rally, and therefore a point, to the opponent. Option A, suspension, is not a card decision at all; a ban from future tournaments is imposed later by the federation on a disciplinary report, not by the umpire on court. Learn the three cards as a rising ladder — yellow for a warning, red for a point to the other side, black for disqualification — because papers ask for any one of the three.

The correct answer is A, Yoga for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The second International Day of Yoga fell in 2016, the year after the first observance of 2015, and the theme tied yoga to the Sustainable Development Goals that the United Nations had adopted in 2015, with the main event held at Chandigarh. Options B, C and D are themes of the kind announced in other years or simply invented for the question, and they are meant to attract a candidate who remembers only that the themes speak of peace, wellness or health. The lesson for the examination hall is to count the editions: the first day was in 2015, so the second was in 2016, and the theme must belong to that year. The day itself is observed on 21 June, following the General Assembly resolution of 2014 on India’s proposal.

The correct answer is D, Subramanian Raman. He received the Dronacharya Award of 2021 in the Regular category for table tennis, the award given to coaches whose trainees reach the podium at the Olympic, Asian, Commonwealth or World Championship level. Options A and B, Manika Batra and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, are players and not coaches, and they are put here because both are India’s leading table tennis names of the same years; Manika Batra won the Commonwealth Games singles gold in 2018. Option C, Mouma Das, is also a player, a long-serving international who received the Arjuna Award. The distinction the question rests on is therefore the class of award: the Dronacharya is for coaches, the Arjuna and the Khel Ratna for players, so a player’s name can never answer a Dronacharya question.

The correct answer is C, because Harshavardhana's court poet was Banabhatta, not Harishena. Harishena belonged to an earlier century altogether: he was the court poet of Samudragupta and composed the Prayag Prashasti, the Allahabad Pillar Inscription. The statement is therefore the one that is not correct, which is what the question asks for.

Option A is correct, because Harsha ruled from 606 CE to about 647 CE, which is roughly fourteen hundred years before our own time. Option B is correct, because the Chinese pilgrim Xuan Zang, written in older books as Hiuen Tsang, travelled in India between 629 and 645 CE and spent several years at Harsha's court, leaving his account in the Si-yu-ki. Option D is correct, because the Harshacharita is the biography of Harsha written by Banabhatta and is regarded as the first historical biography in Sanskrit.

The correct answer is A, Goods and Services Tax. GST is charged on the supply of goods and services, and although the registered supplier deposits it with the government, the amount is recovered from the buyer in the price. Since the burden is shifted to someone other than the person who pays it in, GST is an indirect tax.

Option B, corporation tax, is a direct tax on the profits of a company, and the company cannot pass the liability on to anyone else. Option C, income tax, is the classic direct tax, levied under the Income-tax Act of 1961 on the income of individuals and other assessees according to their ability to pay. Option D, capital gains tax, is charged on the profit made when a capital asset such as land, a building or a share is sold, and is again borne by the seller who earned the gain. All three are administered by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, while GST falls under the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.

The correct answer is C, Union Carbide. On the night of 2 and 3 December 1984, methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, killing thousands of people and injuring many more. The disaster directly led Parliament to pass the Environment (Protection) Act in 1986 and later the Public Liability Insurance Act of 1991.

Option A, Exide, is a battery manufacturer and had no plant involved in the leak. Option B, Bharat Rasayan Limited, is an agrochemical company but is unconnected with Bhopal. Option D, UPL Limited, is another agrochemical firm and is likewise unrelated to the tragedy. For the examination, remember the chain: Union Carbide, methyl isocyanate, Bhopal, December 1984, and the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986 that followed it.

The correct answer is Article 108. When the two Houses disagree on an ordinary bill, because one House rejects it, the Houses disagree on amendments, or more than six months pass without the other House passing it, the President can summon a joint sitting to resolve the deadlock. The Speaker of the Lok Sabha presides, and the bill is passed by a majority of the members of both Houses present and voting, which gives the larger Lok Sabha the advantage. Joint sittings have been held only three times: in 1961, 1978 and 2002.

The other options are real Articles with different content. Article 85 deals with the summoning, prorogation and dissolution of the Houses. Article 105 covers the powers, privileges and immunities of the Houses and their members. Article 331 allowed the President to nominate Anglo-Indian members to the Lok Sabha, a provision that has now lapsed. Remember that a joint sitting cannot be used for a money bill or a constitutional amendment bill.

The correct answer is C, Net National Product. Gross National Product minus depreciation gives Net National Product.

Depreciation is the wear and tear of machinery, buildings and other capital goods during the year. The word 'gross' means depreciation has not been taken out and 'net' means it has, so GDP minus depreciation gives Net Domestic Product and GNP minus depreciation gives Net National Product. The word 'national' brings in net factor income from abroad, that is income earned by Indians outside the country minus income earned by foreigners inside it. NNP at factor cost is what is usually called national income, and dividing it by the population gives per capita income.

A and B are wrong: both are gross domestic measures and take no account of depreciation. D is wrong: personal income is the income actually received by households, reached after further adjustments.

Exam tip: Gross minus depreciation equals net; domestic plus net factor income from abroad equals national.

The correct answer is B, 1961. The Dowry Prohibition Act was passed in 1961 and came into force on 1 July that year.

The Act makes the giving, taking or demanding of dowry a punishable offence, and defines dowry as property or valuable security given in connection with a marriage. It was strengthened by amendments in 1984 and 1986, which fixed a minimum punishment and provided for Dowry Prohibition Officers. Around the same years criminal law added cruelty to a wife as an offence and made a death within seven years of marriage in suspicious circumstances a dowry death, with the burden of explanation on the husband's family.

A is wrong: no dowry law was passed in 1967. C is wrong: 1952 saw no such legislation. D is wrong: 1959 is when the bill was under discussion, but the Act carries the year 1961.

Exam tip: Dowry Prohibition Act - 1961, in force 1 July 1961, amended in 1984 and 1986.

The correct answer is D, product method. The product method adds up the value of goods and services produced by all firms in the economy.

National income can be measured in three ways, and all three should give the same figure. The product or value added method adds the value added by each firm, that is output minus intermediate consumption, so that the same output is not counted twice. The income method adds the incomes earned by the factors of production, namely wages, rent, interest and profit. The expenditure method adds final expenditure in the economy as consumption, investment, government spending and net exports. In India the National Statistical Office prepares these estimates.

A is wrong: the expenditure method looks at final spending, not at output of firms. B is wrong: there is no separate consumption method; consumption is one item of the expenditure method. C is wrong: the income method counts factor incomes.

Exam tip: Three routes to the same GDP - product or value added, income, and expenditure.

The correct answer is A, Red Sindhi. Red Sindhi is an indigenous Indian dairy breed of cattle, while the other three are Indian dog breeds.

Red Sindhi cattle take their name from the Sindh region and are reddish-brown, hardy and able to bear heat, which is why they have been used to improve milk yield in many tropical countries. Sahiwal, Gir, Tharparkar and Deoni are the other well-known indigenous milch breeds, while Amritmahal, Hallikar and Kangayam are draught breeds. Under the Rashtriya Gokul Mission the government works to conserve and develop such native breeds.

B is wrong: Chippiparai is a sight hound dog breed of Tamil Nadu. C is wrong: Kanni is also a dog breed from southern Tamil Nadu. D is wrong: Kombai is a Tamil Nadu hunting dog breed, not cattle.

Exam tip: Indigenous milch cattle - Red Sindhi, Sahiwal, Gir, Tharparkar, Deoni; Chippiparai, Kanni and Kombai are dog breeds.

The correct answer is D, Copper and Silver. The craftspersons of Bidar were famous for inlay work in copper and silver, and the craft took the name Bidri from the town.

Bidar is in present-day Karnataka and was the capital of the Bahmani rulers and later of the Barid Shahi dynasty. In Bidriware the artisan casts an article from an alloy of zinc and copper, cuts a design into the blackened surface and presses pure silver wire or sheet into the grooves, so the bright pattern stands out against the dark body. Flower, vine and geometric patterns are the usual designs. Bidriware carries a Geographical Indication tag.

A is wrong: gold and bronze are not the metals of Bidri work. B is wrong: bronze is not inlaid in this craft. C is wrong: gold has no part in it, though copper does.

Exam tip: Bidri - Bidar in Karnataka, zinc-copper body with silver inlay, GI tagged.

The correct answer is C, Glacier. A glacier is a natural mass of moving ice and a source of fresh water, not a pollutant.

A water pollutant is any substance added to water that makes it unfit for use. Pollutants are grouped as physical, such as silt, heat and colour; chemical, such as heavy metals, fertilisers, pesticides and detergents; and biological, such as bacteria and viruses from sewage. Glaciers in the Himalayas feed the Ganga, Yamuna and Brahmaputra, so they supply water rather than spoil it.

A is wrong as a choice because chromium is a heavy metal discharged by tanneries and electroplating units and causes serious harm. B is wrong because silt, washed in by erosion, raises turbidity, cuts light for aquatic plants and is treated as a physical pollutant. D is wrong because arsenic in groundwater, a known problem in West Bengal and Bihar, causes arsenicosis and skin cancer.

Exam tip: Physical pollutants - silt and heat; chemical - chromium, arsenic, fluoride; biological - pathogens from sewage.

The correct answer is B, Tanvi Shah. She was the first Indian woman musician to win a Grammy, in 2010.

Tanvi Shah, a singer and lyricist from Chennai, wrote and sang the Spanish lines of the song 'Jai Ho' from the film Slumdog Millionaire. The song won the Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media at the 2010 ceremony, shared with A. R. Rahman and Gulzar. The same film had already brought Rahman two Academy Awards, and Rahman and Resul Pookutty are the other Indian names students should keep with it.

A is wrong: Neeti Mohan is a playback singer with no Grammy. C is wrong: Shweta Pandit is a playback singer who has not won one either. D is wrong: Shalmali Kholgade is also a playback singer without a Grammy.

Exam tip: Tanvi Shah - first Indian woman to win a Grammy, 2010, for the Spanish lyrics of 'Jai Ho'.

The correct answer is B, Maize. Maize is the crop grown both as food and as fodder, needing 21°C to 27°C and old alluvial soil.

Maize is a kharif crop sown with the onset of the monsoon, though in Bihar and a few other states it is also raised in the rabi season. Its output rose with high-yielding seeds, fertilisers and irrigation under the Green Revolution. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Maharashtra are among the leading producers, and the grain also feeds the poultry and starch industries.

A is wrong: sesamum, or til, is an oilseed, a kharif crop in the north and a rabi crop in the south. C is wrong: bajra grows on sandy soils and shallow black soil in dry areas. D is wrong: ragi is a hardy millet of dry regions, grown on red, black, sandy and shallow soils.

Exam tip: Maize - kharif, 21°C to 27°C, old alluvial soil, food and fodder both.

The correct answer is C, Hockey. Back-stick is a foul in field hockey, called when a player strikes the ball with the rounded back of the stick.

A hockey stick has one flat face and one rounded face, and only the flat face may touch the ball. Using the rounded side gives the offending side a penalty and the other team a free hit. Other terms a paper setter may pair with hockey are bully, dribble, scoop, push-in, short corner, penalty stroke, tackle and hat-trick.

A is wrong: basketball terms include dribble, pivot, dunk, lay-up and free throw. B is wrong: badminton terms include smash, drop shot, deuce, let and service court. D is wrong: volleyball terms include spike, block, serve, dig and libero.

Exam tip: Back-stick, bully, scoop and short corner all belong to hockey; pivot and dunk to basketball.

The correct answer is A, The acid present in tomato - Formic acid. This pair is wrong, because tomato contains oxalic acid, along with some citric and malic acid.

Formic acid, or methanoic acid, is the acid of an ant sting and a bee sting, and its name comes from the Latin word for ant. Oxalic acid is found in tomato, spinach and other leafy vegetables. Learning the natural acids as pairs is the quickest way to handle such questions: lemon and orange give citric acid, curd gives lactic acid, vinegar gives acetic acid, apple gives malic acid and tamarind gives tartaric acid.

B is a correct match, so it is not the answer: orange does contain citric acid. C is correct as well, because grapes and tamarind contain tartaric acid. D is also correct, since rancid butter smells the way it does because of butyric acid.

Exam tip: Tomato - oxalic acid; ant sting - formic acid; do not mix the two.

The correct answer is A, carbon dioxide. Urea is made industrially by reacting ammonia with carbon dioxide under high pressure.

The process runs in two steps: ammonia and carbon dioxide first form ammonium carbamate, which then loses a water molecule to give urea. Its formula is CO(NH2)2 and it carries about 46 per cent nitrogen, the highest of the common solid fertilisers, which is why it is the most used nitrogenous fertiliser in India. The ammonia itself comes from the Haber-Bosch process. Urea also has a place in the history of chemistry as the first organic compound synthesised in a laboratory, by Friedrich Wohler in 1828.

B is wrong: ammonia is itself made from nitrogen and hydrogen, and adding hydrogen gives no urea. C is wrong: ammonia with oxygen gives nitric oxide, a step towards nitric acid. D is wrong: ammonia with sulphuric acid gives ammonium sulphate, a different fertiliser.

Exam tip: Urea - ammonia plus carbon dioxide, formula CO(NH2)2, about 46 per cent nitrogen.

The correct answer is D, Pacific Ocean. El Nino is the warming of surface water in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific.

In a normal year the trade winds push warm water westwards towards Australia and Indonesia, and cold water rises along the coast of Peru and Ecuador. In an El Nino year the trade winds weaken, warm water spreads back eastwards and the cold upwelling off South America is cut off, which hurts the anchovy catch there. The name means 'the child' in Spanish, because fishermen noticed it around Christmas. For India an El Nino year often means a weaker monsoon; the opposite phase, with colder than normal Pacific water, is called La Nina.

A is wrong: the Arctic Ocean is polar and has no such cycle. B is wrong: the Indian Ocean has its own Indian Ocean Dipole, not El Nino. C is wrong: the Atlantic has a much weaker Atlantic Nino.

Exam tip: El Nino - warm Pacific, weak Indian monsoon; La Nina - cold Pacific, usually a good monsoon.